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DON AIREY Talks About LIVING LOUD, Joining DEEP PURPLE

March 10, 2004

The online rock journal "The Fuze" conducted an interview with DEEP PURPLE keyboardist Don Airey a month ago in Vancouver. The following are some of the highlights of that conversation:

On adding his personality to the band's sound:

"I had an idea to start 'Perfect Strangers' with a big church organ sound, of which I've got a magnificent example on my keyboard. (laughs) I think I tried it once, and never did it again! I think it was just in a rehearsal. [Drummer] Ian Paice gave me a stare. (laughs) That was the end of that."

On LIVING LOUD, the new "supergroup" consisting of Airey, Bob Daisley (OZZY OSBOURNE, RAINBOW, URIAH HEEP) on bass, Steve Morse (DEEP PURPLE, KANSAS, DIXIE DREGS) on guitar, Lee Kerslake (URIAH HEEP, OZZY OSBOURNE) on drums and Jimmy Barnes (COLD CHISEL) on vocals:

"My part in it is very peripheral. I just came in for an afternoon. Bob phoned me up and said 'I'm in London. We've got Air Lyndhurst [Studios]. Would you come in and add a few overdubs for the album?' So that's what I did. I went in for 6-7 hours. Bob and I spent most of the time laughing ourselves silly about the old days. (laughs) I played on five or six tracks."

On being asked to join DEEP PURPLE as the replacement for Jon Lord:

"I'd come home from a gig in London at two in the morning, and there was a message from [DEEP PURPLE manager] Bruce Payne — 'Please ring me. Very urgent.' I phoned him up and said 'What do you want this time of the morning?' He said 'PURPLE want you to join.' I said 'OK!' So at two o'clock in the morning I had whiskey. He said 'It's a done deal. We'll sort it out next year.' "

Read the full interview here.

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